Bradford foster care chiefs are backing a national body that claims teenagers are at risk of missing out on stable family life due to a shortage of suitable carers.

As the Telegraph & Argus reported on Friday, almost 450 children aged over ten are in the care of Bradford Council, 259 of whom are living with foster carers or are in residential care.

But because there are not enough foster carers in the city, 30 youngsters over the age of ten are being cared for outside the district or in residential homes.

Today, the Fostering Network waded into the debate at the start of Foster Care Fortnight.

The Fostering Network, the UK’s leading charity for everyone with a personal or professional involvement in fostering, said a new survey of 128 fostering services had found that finding foster families for teenagers was now their top priority. Out of those surveyed, 98 per cent have a shortage of families for teenagers, 80 per cent need more foster carers for 11 to 15-year-olds than for any other age group, and 52 per cent say the pressure for finding families for teenagers is worse than it was last year.

Robert Tapsfield, chief executive of the Fostering Network, said: “Teen-agers are missing out at a stage in their lives when a good foster family could make all the difference, helping them to achieve at school and prepare for adult life.

“At a time when many people are looking for work, we are encouraging them to consider taking up a career in fostering, especially those already experienced in working with teenagers.”

Sarah Patrick, Bradford’s Fostering and Adoption Unit Service manager, said: “Fostering is a vocation of enormous responsibility which can lead to great personal reward.

“Knowing you have helped a teenager overcome their problems and return to their family, or find their feet and make their way in the world, is something you will never forget.”

  • Read the full story in Monday's T&A